The present invention relates to a parking rod in a parking lock device of an automatic transmission for transmitting the applied force from a shift lever to a parking gear via a parking pole. The invention also includes a production method thereof.
A known parking lock device comprises a parking gear having a plurality of stopping grooves on the outer periphery which is fixed on a drive shaft supported rotatably in a transmission case. A parking pawl has stopping projecting portions for engagement with the stopping grooves. The parking pawl is rotatably supported in the vicinity of the parking gear.
A shift lever is rotatably supported at the vehicle body side so that the applied force of the shift lever is transmitted to a transmission mechanism comprising a link mechanism. Since the transmission mechanism is also linked with the parking rod, the parking rod rotates in accordance with the rotation of the shift lever. By rotation of the parking rod, a cam member provided at the tip portion of the parking rod rotates the parking pawl so that the parking gear engages with the parking pole for stopping rotation of the drive shaft through the parking gear.
The transmission mechanism and parking rod are linked via an applied force transmitting portion and a link pin embedded therein. Since the parking rod, the applied force transmitting portion and the link pin are individual parts, the applied force transmitting portion needs to be welded to the parking rod. Consequently, there are problems such as increase of weight of the device due to the increase of the number of constituent parts. There is also an increase in production cost due to the production processes in welding and due to the necessity of cutting off welding beads.